Curie

 There has been some excitement at the Keeley house of late. 

We have been talking about getting another Greyhound since Zelda died in 2019. We've looked off and on, but they are much harder to come across then the used to be. The track where Zelda had raced closed, and that was a major source of greyhounds for California. Florida also outlawed dog racing (yay!). Which means, in the US, West Virginia is the only state that allows racing. So there are a lot less retired racers around. Some are imported from Australia. And some are used as blood donor dogs for a time and then retired. Others are rescued from China or Korea. So, I had kind of put the idea of getting another Greyhound away, because it seemed unlikely without having to buy a purebred (which I am against). In fact, the agency we got Zelda from has since shut down, because they had no more dogs to help.

But earlier this year, we started looking again. There are still 2 greyhound adoption agencies in the Bay Area. The first one said our house wouldn't be a good fit for the dogs they get (mostly Australian) because the have a high prey drive, and we have cats. The second agency accepted our application and said they'd contact us when they had a good fit. We waited and followed up after a couple months. They said they had 2 greyhound puppies, would we consider a puppy adoption? We had previously said no, because puppies are a lot of work. But we thought, why no consider it. We decided to go visit the puppies, and see if either were a good fit. 

On Sunday morning, we drove to Santa Rosa (2 hours north) with Nana, Bronwyn and Monty in tow. Bertram refused any part of getting another dog. (He is a staunch cat person). Our main aim was to see if Monty would get along with a new dog. He is not usually very friendly with other dogs. Not aggressive, but likes his space. The ride was uneventful, if not long. When we arrived we met Marni who is fostering several dogs, including the two Greyhound puppies, who was 6 months old. Aaron and I met the dogs first, who were all riled up. Then Bron tried to meet them, but they were too jumpy for her. Then we met the dogs one on one. Lyra had A LOT of energy and really wanted to play. She was not as good on lead as the other puppy. Monty didn't like her, she was too playful. And didn't understand what his low growls meant. So she was put away, and Ursa came out. Ursa was calmer. And when Monty met her, she understood he didn't want to play.

They were happy to exist near each other. So we decided to take the leap. She has had all her puppy shots. She'll need to be spayed in a couple months.

She didn't want to leave or get in the car, so Aaron carries her. Then she didn't want to be in the bed in the back of the van. So she crawled up and sat in my lap.

After a short while, we switched spots. Aaron sat in the third row with her and I drove the two hours back home with Monty on my lap. 

When we got home we introduced her to the family, who were all down the street. Aaron walked her a few times that evening. She ate, but didn't potty until 1230am. But she went outside, so that was fine. She likes the paddle pool.

She is very strong on walks, but doesn't walk very straight yet, so that is a work in progress. And she wants to have everything. Anything she can get she'll pick up and take the her bed. (While I've been typing this, she picked up 2$ and brought it to her bed). She is food motivated, which is good, it makes training easier. But we had to move Monty's food and the cat's food where she can't reach.  None of our other dogs have been interested in toys, so we only had a couple things for her. Yesterday, I went to Ross, Home Goods and PetSmart and bought a plethora of soft toys, chewy things and treats, so we are now well equipped.

After going through a few names, we decided on Curie. Though, today I was thinking Laika would have been a good fit. 

She went to the vet for a check in yesterday. She looks good, except her ear need a little cleaning. She weighs 36 lbs, which will probably be close to  half of her adult weight. She starts puppy class on Saturday.

So far, no accidents 🤞🏽 and she already learned to use the bells to ask to go out. (Something Monty has yet to learn). The cats are getting used to her. Waffles is kind of a badass and just does what she wants, nonplussed about Curie. Oona and Shy Guy are much more circumspect. But everyone is adapting. 

Bron has done amazing with Curie. She knows not to run, or the dog will chase her. She doesn't panic if Curie jumps up on her. She pushes her and tells her down. Bert has had very little interaction with the dog, which is how he prefers it.

She goes in her crate at night and when we leave the house. So far, the longest we've been gone is an hour or so. She's not too fond of the crate over night. Actually, that's not true, she sleeping in it right now. But if I close the gate and go back to bed, she starts whining. So for now, I'm out here with her (and Monty, the Velcro dog). 

All things considered, she has been very easy so far, especially for a puppy.  (I said I would never have a puppy. Never say never, I guess).

Another pet blog

Zelda:
She was our first dog (as in neither of us had ever had a dog before).  We had wanted a greyhound for sometime, and where matched up with her.  She has lived with us for nearly 6 years.  Zelda is the sweetest dog.  She loves all people, and cats!  And she is an easy dog, she sleeps all day.  She has deep brown eyes with Egyptian-looking eyeliner.  She loves walks, holding hands, zoomies, sleeping on the couch and treats.  She will be 11 in October.  Her full name is Zelda Belle.  Aliases: Zelly Belly, Zoody, Zooby, Zelby, Zella, Noodles, Big Dog, Dogzilla, Belly, and Zoo.

Fiona:
Thinking all dogs were awesome, like Zelda, we got Fiona at a chihuahua sale, at the local shelter. She is not full chihuahua, but possibly has dachshund, or terrier as well. She tricked us, she acted very quiet and friendly.  Neither of these things have been true.  When she first came home, she peed on the floor a lot.  That, fortunately, has stopped.  But she barks all. the. time.  And she hates all dogs that aren't Zelda, and is not fond of many people either.  But she is a snuggly little idiot, and we love her.  The age estimate from the shelter puts her about the same age as Zelly.  She still acts like a much younger dog.  Her full name is Fiona Josephine.  Her aliases are: Yoie, Yoie Joey, and Small Dog,

Julius:
Juli is possibly the most handsome, and troublesome cat we've ever had.  He is friendly, and loves to be a lap cat.  But he also sprays whenever he is in the house, and after trying many things, he had to be an outside/garage cat.  Juli got along with our previous cat (Moss) but doesn't like any other cats.  He gets along with the dogs without any issues. He is a jerk, but we still love him.  He is likely about 7 years old.  Neither cat has a middle name.  Aliases: Juli, Jules, Juli-Booli, Julius-Boolius, and Juli-Cat.

Priya:
Priya has only been with us since January.  She is a shy cat, but likes snuggling once she knows you.  She is missing one of her rear feet, so she hops a bit.  Her name was Tinsley when we adopted her.  She doesn't like dogs, but likes hissing and swiping at them.  Priya has Bertie get along fairly well; she likes to sit by him in the big recliner.  She doesn't have many aliases: Pree, Pree-Cat.

The incident

A week ago we took the dogs on their nightly walk.  We went on one of our non-typical routes.  As we were walking down the sidewalk a grey pitbull charged out of a house, and straight towards the dogs.  It all happened so fast, I didn't even have time to think. (We carry pepper spray in our walk bag for that specific purpose, but didn't even have time to grab it).  I hoisted Yoie up by her lead, and the pitbull went straight to Zelda.  In a matter of 2 seconds, Zelda had several bites on her leg (one was muscle deep).  

The friend of the dog owner had let the dog out into the front yard without a lead.  The owner (Regina) was not happy about this, of course.  Aaron called his mom to come pick up him and Zelda, and they went off to the emergency vet.  I walked Bertie and Yoie home.  Aaron had to leave her for a while, and pick her up around 1:30 am.  It was $400-something. When Fiona and I went to bed, I noticed that she was bleeding.  She had been bitten on her chest, but it didn't look too bad, so I decided to take her to our normal vet in the morning.

Zelda came home and looked alright.  When we got up, Fiona's bit was really, really swollen.  I took her to the vet.  She had a hematoma and needed a drain.  So I left her for the day, her bill was around $500.  

Then on Wednesday we noticed that Zelda's stitches looked really bad, like she'd popped a stitch.  Thursday I took her to our vet, who told us that the emergency vet didn't fix her correctly and she had necrotic tissue in her wound.  So she needed a drain too.  Another $500.  Aaron is still in talks with the ER vet to reimburse us for their error.  The pitbull's owner paid $1000 for the first round of bills (but it it's right for her to have to pay for the vet's error).

In the meantime, my sister made a go fund me for Zelda and in a day we raised enough money to cover the bill, in case the ER vet doesn't pay.

Fiona had her drain out on Saturday.  She's looking a little better, and her appetite is coming back.  Zelda's leg is still looking bad.  She's suppose to have the drain out tomorrow, but we'll see that the vet says.

It's been a very stressful week.

Christmas and catch up.

I'll start with recent first, and work my way back.

Today I got home from work, and let the girls out to pee.  After I let them out, I noticed two accidents in the garage.  This is not unusual.  Well, two are, but an accident is not out of the ordinary.  One was poo, the other was pee, with blood in it.  So then I went into freak out mode.  With four fur kids, it makes it hard to track down who did what.  My guess was it was Yoie, but I wasn't sure.  So I checked out the other guys.  Then I took Yoie out on lead, with a bowl, to try to get a urine sample.  She only did a few drops, but they were red.  I called the vet, and they were able to see her right away.  (I'm really glad our vet is open til 7, otherwise the emergency vet is so expensive).  So Yoie and I dashed off.  I felt bad about leaving Zelda, the girls usually go everywhere together.

The vet looked at her, and the few drops of pee I brought in.  He said there are four possibilities: Uti, crystals in the urine (from diet), some badness from the kidneys, or trauma to the bladder.  I think it's a UTI, I know she's not feeling well.  And having had plenty of UTIs in my time, she's got the symptoms.  Frequent trips to the bathroom, trying to pee more than she needs to, and just not feeling herself.  The vet gave her two injections of antibiotics, and she'll start Amox tomorrow.  Aaron or I need to bring in a urine sample tomorrow.

I feel so bad, I know she's not feeling well, and there's nothing I can do for her.  I've been giving her extra snuggles, but my poor puppy.  Plus with my hormones the way they are, it's hard to deal.  Not to mention having to get up and down to let her out every 20 minutes.  (Hopefully Aaron will be home soon).

Now that I'm 28 weeks pregnant, by the last due date, I have to start doing my kick counting.  Every night after dinner, I count kicks to see how long it takes to kick ten times.  So far it only takes him 10 minutes.  Aaron and I have been taking turns reading Mojo a book every night.  He kicks a lot most of the time.  I'm liking it.  We have a name that we'll likely name Mojo.  We've told our families, so far only my sister and Aaron's bio-mom like the name.  My mom said she could live with it.  My dad didn't say how he felt.

My dad's sister and her husband were out to visit.  He cousin and her husband also came to visit (all four live on the East coast).  The plan was to spent 4 days in Las Vegas (over Christmas).  But my dad was still feeling  pretty weak, and even worse his cousin and her husband got the flu!  Like the real lasts a week or longer flu.  Neither had gotten the vaccine, and my dad, his sister and brother in law all had the shot.  No one else in the house got sick.  So the two sickies stayed at the house all week, and the other three went and did some day trips.  And my MiL was able to accommodate them for Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Eve we went to services with Aaron's mom and that side of the family.  When we came home, we stayed up for a while, and then it was after midnight, so we opened our gifts.  I got Aaron a few medium sized gifts, he got me three big gifts, and a couple little ones.  Also, my stocking was filled with stockings (socks and tights).  He got me a Timbuk2 messenger bag (I've been coveting his for almost 5 years), a fitbit flex, and a set of emerald cut aquamarine earrings.  Aquamarine will be Mojo's birth stone (unless he's a premie).  On the box it said "To Mommy, From (name we chose)".  So cute!  I got Aaron some new Pumas, a painting set, the Jeeves and Wooster Dvd box set, some stuff for his airbrush etc.  We got some really cute baby clothes, a new pots and pans set.  Some gift cards and I got some new maternity clothes.  Aaron's folks bought us a leather recliner for the baby's room, and a few other things.  So it was a really nice Christmas.

Dinner was delicious, and it was nice to spend time with family.  We also did a gift card exchange, I got a $25 Amazon gift card.

I used some of my Christmas money to buy clearance maternity and nursing clothes from Old Navy and Walmart.

Sophie sent out my baby shower invitations.  They're really cute, and I'm super excited for it.

I'll post some pictures next time.

Pictures

I put the pictures up for my Marmie, since she doesn't have facebook.

Today was bath day for animals.  I bathed Moss and Yoie, and had Aaron do Zelda, since I can't lift her anymore.

I feel like the fatigue has come back again, but I guess that's to be expected.

We got to park in the driveway today.  And, we can fit both cars side by side!  Yay!  Now we can fit 4 cars in the driveway.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year.  I think I did pretty well at buying gifts this year.

I've been training MJ at work this week, she'll be taking over most of my billing stuff while I'm on leave.  She's the most senior girl at the front desk.  She's a quick learner, and I think she'll do a great job.  But training is hard, and I don't feel like I'm a very good teacher.  But we're making progress.

Busy

I've been doing a lot of yard work lately.  I'm trying to make it look like someone who cares lives here, instead of hobos.  Last week I did a lot of the bushes and tree.  I had 7 wheelbarrows and one trashcan full of yard waste.  This week I mowed the lawns, and did edging.  We only have a hand (non-electric) edger and it is A LOT of work.  I did about a third of the front yard.  I still need to finish the edging and clean out the flower beds.  I've been watering the lawns a lot too.  Usually I let them get too dry in the summer.  I'm trying to keep them looking... nice?  Better?  The back lawn in especially bad.  I think I need grass seeds, or something.

This week has gone by slowly.  I've been counting down the days til I get to see Aaron.  Since I didn't see him last week, it's been too long. But tomorrow is the day!  Yay!

I switched my nose stud to a ring.  I really like it.  Not the best picture of me, but you get the idea.

I started the cancer prevention study today.  It's a long term study 20-30 years.  So far I've done a couple surveys, and today I got a couple measurements, and had a blood draw.  Easy Peasy.

After almost 4 months, I finally got my period.  Geez, it's been really crazy.  I've been talking to my obgyn.  She said after a year of trying I could see an infertility doctor.  But that's not covered by my insurance.  Grr.  Fingers crossed my ovaries start doing the right thing.  

Today, I was walking the dogs.  My neighbour, Steve, was his yard playing with his dog Dennis (either a full Pit, or Pit mix.  Dennis is the nicest dog.  We walked the other way, and I didn't think Dennis saw us.  Then I heard Steve yell "Dennis!  No!"  Dennis came running towards us.  I wasn't worried about him, because he's nice.  I was a little concerned about how Zelda and Yoie would act; they both get nervous around other dogs.  I held Yoie back.  Dennis came and smelled Zelda, she smelled him.  Eventually Yoie's barking caused Zelda to bark.  And then Steve got Dennis, and apologized profusely.  This whole thing was maybe 5-10 seconds.  I was pretty happy with the result for the most part.

Work is going well.  I've been pretty busy, but I actually was completely caught up a couple times.  It's been a while since that happened.

That's it for now!

Road-tripping (with Dogs)

Aaron is up in Sonora running the boy scout camp, all Summer.  It's about 120 miles away, or 3 hours, with no traffic or stops.

We (the dogs and I) have traveled up to see him twice now.

I made a lot of mistakes the first time we went.

• We left at rush hour on a Friday.
• I didn't take the girls for a walk first.
• My Adderall wore off part way through.

We left right after I got home from work, and hit the road at 4:10.  We hit major traffic in Fremont.  Then, while we were stuck (the traffic was crawling a long), Zelda announced that she needed to go to the bathroom.  She started whining and didn't stop until I was able to pull off about 20 minutes later.  And then it took her a long time to find the perfect spot.  The whole excursion took up 20 minutes.  Then it took a long time to get back on the road.  By the time we'd been on the road for 2 hours, we'd only traveled 40 miles.  It was a long day.  We were stuck on 680 a long time, then on 580 for a long time too.  

We stopped in Manteca for another potty break.  There wasn't any traffic after that, but I still had to stop a few more times for Zelda to pee more.  That was pretty annoying.  We didn't get to camp til after 10, so I 3 hour trip became a 5+ hour trip.  

The first trip home was more or less the same.  Lots of stops, lots of whining.  It's all Zelda.  Fiona is a great travel dog.  She's quiet, and she stays in my lap the whole time.  Zelda whines, lays down, gets up (has jelly legs) whines, lays down and repeat (ad infinitum).  It's frustrating.  Anyway, the trip back took about 4 hours.

Last week we went up again, this time on July 3rd.  Still a bad travel day.  But this time, we didn't leave until 6:30, in hopes of missing most of the traffic.  Also, I got a sedative for Zelda.  We still got stuck in traffic, but not nearly as badly as the previous week.  The trip still took 4 hours.  But the sedative seemed to help some.

Today's trip home was much better.  Zelda slept most of the time, and we made the trip in 3.5 hours.  

Zelda at a happier moment.

Fiona's standard riding pose.

Zelda sat in the from seat for about a minute while we were stopped.

Quick Sunday Post

Psyching myself up to go to church.  Since Aaron's been gone, I've been pretty happy cloistering myself, so I'd rather not go.  But I'll at least go for the first part, and take it from there.  Here are some other tidbits:

• Took the dogos to Rio del Mar beach yesterday.  It was a lot of fun.  I'm embarrassed to say that I'm actually sore from all the sand walking/running.  It's easier with two people, but Aaron always gets nervous driving distances with the dogs.  Mostly because Yoie will trampoline back and forth across the front seats.
• Since we didn't have anything specific to do, I took the long, roundabout way home.  It was nice, except I was hoping to see all the little fruit stands I remembered from my youth.  But there were none.  I did, however, get the dogs lunch from a Jack in the Box drive through.  Grilled chicken strips, seemed dog appropriate, and they were so hungry.
• Friday was Humira day.  It hurt, as always.  And I have a nice little bruise.  I probably need to talk to my doctor, it seems like I'm bruising easily lately.
• I finally thought of a couple things for Aaron's birthday.  But since he reads the blog from time to time, I won't elaborate.
• It's birthday time. Friday was my MiL's birthday.  Saturday was my dad's birthday.  And today is my sister in law's birthday.  Plus Rebecca and Aaron's birthdays at the end of the month.
• I've been cutting out milk lately (just milk, not all dairy) in favour of soy milk.  A lot less calories, since I'm trying to drop a little weight.  One cup has half the calories of 1% milk.  So I think I'll be doing that for a while.
• As of yesterday, I'm down 6lbs in 5 weeks.  Yay me!  139 and feelin' fine.  Well, as fine as I can feel. :-P  I'm trying to get down to 135 right now (I should be there in another month).  And then maybe I'll aim for 132 or 130, we'll see.  Exercising is the hardest part, since I still have no energy.  I've been using the myfitnesspal app.  It's great, I love it.  So I'm doing it healthfully, and making sure I'm getting all my needed vitamins.
• There was a little hiccup at work this week.  Well, a big hiccup, but only a small one having to do with me.  I was entering some of the billing wrong, which I discovered a week or so ago.  But I wasn't fixing the error correctly.  So I'm working on going back and fixing that.  I'm meeting with the owner tomorrow, just to update him on that, and show him the processes.
• The big hiccup doesn't have to do with me, except that I'm helping out.  One of the front desk gals, J, is newly pregnant (10 weeks) and has been ridiculously sick.  As in she had to get IV fluids, and she's lost so much weight that her OBGYN said she can't work for at least 3 weeks!  She is the opener for the front desk.  Cue where I come in.  I'm now opening at the main office from 7 til 8 or 9 depending on the day.  Then I go over to the billing office for the rest of the day, barring any complications, in which case, I go back, and help out at the main office.  It's a lot of back and forth, but I don't mind too much.  I actually get to see people this way, since I'm usually all alone at the other office.